The present invention relates generally to floor cleaning apparatus and specifically to floor scrubbers and buffers. Conventional floor cleaning schemes require a scrubber having a round scrubbing pad that rotates to remove wax and other unwanted sediment from a floor prior to applying a new coat of wax. Contemporaneous to the scrubbing operation, cleaning personnel must, on hands and knees, proceed along the periphery of a room with a hand held scraper to remove sediment from next to the wall that the round scrubbing pad cannot access. This is problematic in terms of time consumption and/or additional personnel required. The present invention overcomes this disadvantage, as well as achieving other objects and advantages that will be apparent to those of skill in the art, by providing a dual mode scrubber with a square cleaning pad that can rotate in a first mode to achieve the scrubbing operation away from the walls, and reciprocate longitudinally in a second mode adjacent to a wall to remove the sediment next to the wall.
Generally, the present invention accomplishes a dual mode operation having a first rotating mode and a second reciprocating mode using a “dog clutch” arrangement. In the rotating mode, the dog clutch is disengaged and a gear arrangement is engaged causing a lower portion to rotate. In the reciprocating mode, the gear arrangement is disengaged and the dog clutch engages a double throw crank shaft with attached dual linkage. One linkage arm is pivotably secured to the scrubber plate. A second linkage arm is pivotably secured to a counter weight assembly which dampens unwanted vibrations. It is to be understood that the terms buffer and scrubber can be used interchangeably herein while in the art the terms can refer to the polishing of a newly waxed floor and the removing of old wax or other sediment, respectively.